by Doris E Rufli

Created on: October 19, 2008

I never even looked at this movie's synopsis until friends mentioned the title and the fact that they wanted to go and see it, but did not regret going myself in the end one bit. A bittersweet story with a poignant message that comes across the screen loud and clear it is never too late to change your ways and finding your true self and calling.

Both, housewife and mother Adrienne Willis (Diane Lane) and Doctor Paul Flanner (Richard Gere) find themselves in a deadend situation in desperate need to sort themselves and their lives out. Adrienne is rushing about to get her two kids a young boy virtually glued to his computer (games) and a rebellious teenage girl resenting anything her mother says or does to pack them off for a few days away with their father her estranged husband (Christopher Meloni) in Orlando. As the siblings are finally ready and waiting, Jack Willis enters and literally begs his wife to take him back and be a whole' family again, conveniently forgetting that he took off with one of her friends though that relationship did not last. Adrienne refuses to being pushed into a decision and declines dropping off the kids somewhere so the two of them can rekindle their marriage but insists on heading to Rodanthe where her best friend Jean (Viola Davis) runs a lodging house by the seaside.

Paul Flanner on the other hand is leaving his house for good, apparently facing a wrongful death suit and is driving to Rodanthe to talk to the grieving widower (Scott Glenn) before heading off to South America in search of his son Mark (James Franco), a doctor helping the underprivileged. The initial meeting ends in a shouting match with the widower's son (Pablo Schreiber) kicking in the door of the doctor's flashy car.

At the inn, Jean has left for her seminar leaving Adrienne in charge of the one guest who would not take no for an answer. Doctor Paul Flanner insisted on paying double the going rate if that was what it took for him to stay at the lodging house. Being the perfect mother and housewife, of course, Adrienne's cooking soon has them both conversing and getting to know one another's stories of what brought them to the isolated house at the beach. They discover that Adrienne's artistic talent was literally boxed up when she became a wife and mother while the doctor always put his job and professional success ahead of wife and son, loosing them both in the end.

Nights in Rodanthe is a very moving story of selfdiscovery of two middleaged people, proving that it is never too late to make amends. So, will Adrienne return to her suburban life and take her philandering husband back? Will Paul Flanner make it to South America and make up with his son? That is the question or is that questions?

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